1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of on-board vehicle navigation systems and more particularly to a system and method of providing real-time road construction information to such systems.
2. Description of Prior Art
It is known in the art to provide on-board navigation systems for vehicles. These systems are usually based on a combination of GPS, gyro, vehicle steering, wheel, or odometer connections, and dead reckoning. It is very common to provide these systems with canned maps of various regions from common map suppliers. Presently these maps are supplied on CD-ROM.
Recently there has been considerable interest in the field of telematics where generally vehicle on-board systems communicate via wireless radio connections to the cellular telephone network or to local or wide area networks. It is envisioned that considerable information will be downloaded into vehicle on-board systems via such telematic systems.
It has been proposed that possibly up to date maps could be periodically downloaded via telematics systems to keep the map database for on-board navigation systems up to date. It has also been proposed that it might be possible in future telematics systems to download real-time traffic conditions into on-board navigation systems so that the system's advanced planning features could provide temporary routes around traffic jams.
What is needed however, whether maps are loaded offline from say CD-ROMs or online via wireless or other means is current road construction information. This would provide considerable help in planning trips whether by automatic means or manual means.